SAFA Skysailor Magazine

29 May | June 2022 SKY SAILOR The biggest challenge was the strong valley wind in Valle Leventina on the third leg, aug- mented by the southerly. How do you always manage to fly such a high average speed? Before with the Phantom, the Ion and now even with the Aonic, an EN A wing? Due to the high collapse resistance and good- natured collapse behaviour of these gliders, I always fly fully accelerated. It is clear that one of the main developments in new gliders is the increasingly flat polar curve. For years you have flown distances on EN A or B wings. Is there a reason you choose these? I’ve come to appreciate stress-free flying with simple gliders – especially in turbulent con- ditions, which you mostly have on epic days. This gives me more time to make the right decisions and still be fit and relaxed after 10 hours. In addition, a large, well-loaded low-end EN B, or indeed the Aonic, flies very well with a top-class harness. I don’t need anything else. But couldn’t you fly even further with a higher class wing? Aren’t you tempted? I’m not sure if I would really fly further. The performance differences between wing classi- fications are somewhat small. Only two-liners are significantly faster. Please tell us about the flight, the route and the weather. The thermal forecast predicted a good XC day with a very high cloudbase of 4000m and light to moderate southerly winds. The place to be was Ticino – so off to Mornera, the launch site above Bellinzona!